African Fusion June 2015

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June 2015 AFRICAN FUSION
SAIW bulletin board
The biennial Young Welder of the
Year competition was run in January
of this year. “This year we had a record
number of competitors from a variety
of training institutions including: public
TVET colleges; private training institu-
tions; and company in-house training
academies,” Maroga says. The competi-
tionwas extremely closewith littlemore
than one point separating the winner,
Jaco van Deventer from Steinmüller,
from the runner up, Romario Arendse
from the West Coast College.
On the training side, good growth
was experienced across the board,
apart from a decline in practical weld-
ing. Training of in-service inspection
personnel accelerated at a rapid rate
owing to legislation requirements.
“We are continuing to promote the
IIW International Welder (IW) scheme,
a programme that is achieving wider
recognition as an optimumcomprehen-
sive skills programme for welders both
locally and abroad.
SAIW is expanding its capability
to meet the growing need of the rail,
power generation, structural steel and
petrochemical industries by strength-
ening the skills of its staff – in view of
government’s plans to spend hundreds
of billions of Rands on infrastructure in
the next few years.
Qualification and certification
The ISO 3834 certification scheme con-
tinues to make progress and there are
nowmore than 75 companies that have
been certified for working in accordance
with the ISO 3834 welding quality stan-
dard. The scheme is increasingly well
supported by both fabricators and end
users. “We have also seen an increase
in interest for the International Welder
training programme and have increased
the number of Authorised Training Bod-
ies to a total of five, with Eduardo Con-
struction and Steinmüller having been
authorised to undertake this training
programme during the past year.
International affairs
The next IIW Annual Assembly will be
held from June 28 in Helsinki, Finland.
SAIW will lead a delegation of South
African participants in themeetings and
conferences being held in the Assembly.
SAIW is also increasing its interest
and influence in ICNDT. Both Harold
Jansen and Jim Guild attended the
ECNDT Conference in Prague in October
Shelton Zichawo, following sev-
eral years as the coordinator of the
SAIW’s ISO 3834 Welding Fabricator
Certification Scheme, has been pro-
moted to the training services manager
position. “The ISO 3834 experience will
be of great benefit to me in the training
role, because it kept me in touch with
industry,” he tell African Fusion . “So I
come to training with a very clear pic-
ture of where our students will end up.
I know what company’s expect of their
staff in terms of skills and knowledge,
and from ISO 3834 requirements, I have
a clear idea of the roles and responsi-
bilities of trained personnel,” he says.
His priorities? “Initially, I think we
need to look in-house to ensure that
our own lecturers and training staff are
able to perform at the necessary level.
We will be sending some lecturers to
the US for training in specialised areas
SAIW Gauteng and KZN
golf days
The SAIW Golf day for Gauteng took
place on the May 19, 2015 at the Royal
Johannesburg Golf Club. A total of 84 play-
ers participated in a ‘fourball alliance’ with
the best two scores counting on each hole.
The winning team, from AFROX, consisted
of Simon Poiyner, Dries Grobler, Alan Buch-
holtz and Leonard Sandham.
In KZN, the golf day is scheduled for
July 23 at the Royal Durban Golf Club. Book
early to avoid disappointment. Contact Kim
Stevens.
Afrox winners of the Gauteng golf day,
photographed with Sean Blake, SAIW executive
director (second from left): Simon Poiyner, Dries
Grobler, Alan Buchholtz and Leonard Sandham.
last year, where ICNDTmatterswere also
discussed. “We are pleased to report
that Harold Jansen has been elected as
vice chairperson of the ICNDT Certifica-
tion Executive Committee, thus further
entrenching our involvement in ICNDT,”
Maroga adds.
The IAEA/AFRA connection in NDT
remains strong. “We are in the process
of training students from both Sudan
and Cameroon on triangular projects
in partnership with IAEA. The triangu-
lar projects have been established in
order to develop regional training and
examination capacity in the respec-
tive countries. We are hoping to run a
similar project with Kenya later in the
year,” he says.
Future developments
“We are actively pursuing permanent
premises in Durban and hope to have
a functional facility in KwaZulu Natal
before the end of this year, which will
have facilities for both practical and
theoretical teaching inwelding technol-
ogy as well as non-destructive testing,”
Maroga reveals. In addition, a satellite
facility inMpumalanga is being explored
to take pressure off the Johannesburg
building, which is working at capacity.
“The SAIW Board of Directors be-
lieves that Institute expansion intoAfrica
is imperative for continued growth of
the Institute,” he says. “We will be using
existing cooperative relationships and
partnerships with organisations that
Shelton Zichawo has been
promoted to SAIW Training
Services Manager.
are already working in these markets,
most notablymining activities in central
and western Africa as well as oil and gas
projects in Angola, Nigeria and Mozam-
bique,” Maroga informs members.
such as the ASME
Code courses andwe
hope to send more
people on local and
overseas training to
improve SAIWexper-
tise,” he responds.
Z i c hawo w i l l
be responsible for
all welding inspec-
tion and technology
courses, along with
the inspectors of
pressurised equip-
ment (IPE), competent persons (CP) and
all of the IIW welding, welding coordi-
nation (IWC) and welding technologist
(IWT) courses.
“I amcommitted to retaining SAIW’s
position as the preferred training body
for welding-related training services,”
he assures.
SAIW’s new training services manager
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